These days Captain America is a lot more widely known than Audie Murphy, but they had a very similar “origin story.” For those who don’t know of him, Audie Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in World War 2, earning the medal of honor, the distingushed service cross, two silver stars, the legion of merit, two bronze stars, and three purple hearts in fighting on some of the toughest battlefields in Europe. He also worked his way up the ranks to sergeant before receiving a battlefield commission. It’s an amazing story. What does it have to do with Captain America? Before he was finally allowed to enlist in the Army, Audie Murphy had been turned down by every armed service repeatedly. Why? He was five feet five inches tall and weighed 112 pounds. In other words, he was a real life Steve Rogers, the little guy who kept trying to join the US military until finally accepted, after which he was given a serum that turned him into the big, buff Captain America. But Audie Murphy didn’t get any super-soldier serum. In 1945 his height was only up to five feet eight inches and his weight to 138 pounds. He became a hero (read his medal of honor citation to see how much that term is deserved http://homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1940_wwii/murphy_audie.html) but he wasn’t of heroic stature in the physical sense. Which is worth remembering because too often we think of “hero” as meaning someone who looks big and impressive. But what’s big about heroes is what’s inside, and what they do. One other thing. These days there is debate about opening ground combat positions to women, and one of the big arguments against it is the claim that women aren’t big enough to handle the physical stresses of ground combat. But then there was Audie Murphy. Five feet five inches tall, 112 pounds.

The publisher decided they didn’t like Rogue Queen for the second Lost Stars book, so we ended up with Perilous Shield. The revised manuscript has been turned in to both my editor and my agent. The ending holds a couple of Big Surprises.

Today the USS Enterprise (CVN65), the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was retired from the service after 51 years. She will be scrapped after her reactors are removed. During the deactivation ceremony, the Secretary of the Navy promised that there will be another USS Enterprise in the future.

In one of those really weird coincidences, my new short story in Analog is about a Chapter Eighteen which was supposedly lost from The War of the Worlds. I wrote that short story about four months ago. Those who listen to audiobooks of my novels know that when the audiobook for Tarnished Knight came out last month it was initially missing the last chapter. Which was Chapter Eighteen of that book. Sometimes the universe really does seem to be playing games with us.

The January/February 2013 issue of Analog magazine (which is available now) contains my short story “The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 18, The Sergeant-Major,” which is supposedly a long-lost chapter of H.G. Well’s The War of the Worlds. It’s how Wells might have written part of his classic book if he was collaborating with Monty Python.

The sequel to Tarnished Knight (which still has the working title of Rogue Queen which still might change) has been finished and turned in to my agent. I think it’s good, and has an ending that people will be talking about.

Some of the audiobooks for Tarnished Knight came out with Chapter Eighteen missing. For anyone who is unsure, you are missing Chapter Eighteen (the last chapter) if your audio book ends with the sentence beginning “Drakon wondered who would be happier to get back to Midway…” Chapter Eighteen (and the book) ends with “She said nothing more to Drakon before she called…”

Audible says the problem has been fixed. “The audio for Tarnished Knight has been fixed…anyone who previously bought it…can re-download the audio and they’ll get the corrected version.”

About...

I am an author of military science-fiction who draws on my experience as a retired US Navy officer. My father (LCDR. Jack M Hemry, USN ret) is a mustang (an officer who was promoted through the enlisted ranks), so I grew up living everywhere from Pensacola, Florida to San Diego, California, including an especially memorable few years on Midway Island.

I graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons, Kansas in 1974, then attended the US Naval Academy (Class of '78), where I was labeled "the un-Midshipman" by my roommates.

I still speak the remnants of Russian painstakingly pounded into me by Professor Vladimir Tolstoy (yes, he was related to that Tolstoy)

I live in Maryland with my wife who is too good for me and three great kids. The two eldest children are diagnosed as autistic and suffer from Neuro-Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (NIDS), an auto-immune ailment which causes their illness, but are progressing under the treatment of Dr. Michael Goldberg.

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